AMA Supercross 2023

[motogrady]

Well, Round 3, San Diego is slated to run this weekend.
That's 5 days away.
And some are questioning if this one may get cancelled also.

From what they say, it was  still raining there, today, Monday.

This is what the place looked like this past Saturday night, at the Monster Truck Event.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=suiANYTRbkY

[oldironnow]

That's pretty hilarious.

Not only does that look like the rain-load the central coast got,

watching this, I'm getting flashbacks to Wisconsin as a kid, driving around on ice in the storms. Just barley touching the throttle.

[Fatfatboy]

motogrady wrote

Well, Round 3, San Diego is slated to run this weekend.
That's 5 days away.
And some are questioning if this one may get cancelled also.

From what they say, it was  still raining there, today, Monday.

This is what the place looked like this past Saturday night, at the Monster Truck Event.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=suiANYTRbkY

You would think a drainage system would of been built into the mud.

[motogrady]

Ya, the drainage thing is a good questions Kirk.

And yes, that’s the first time I’ve watched monster trucks.
I think it’s the same track builders, a company called Dirt Works.

It’s only the West Coast that’s vulnerable to the rain,
they have open roofs.  The East Coast the issue is air pollution. All closed up they say carbon monoxide is a real problem.  Especially if you are in the nosebleed seats up high.

They used to add lime to the track when they wanted them to dry quickly.  Until 2 years ago they went overboard with the stuff.  Lol…..the day after half the riders had skin burns
and a lot of the bikes were damaged.  Apparently aluminum
and lime don’t get along.
 The AMA, Feld, Dirtworks all passed the buck, saying they didn’t know how that much lime got put down😄.  
Some of the riders even had eye issues for a few days.  
Limegate they called it.

Anyway…….looks close, but maybe they can get it together
this time.  Guys from California are saying it seems to dry out around there pretty quickly.

Here’s this weeks weather forecast……

[motogrady]

Okay boys. Here’s  Round 3, the 2nd race that has been run, due to the cancellation of round 2, which will be run sometime in February, maybe between rounds 5 and 6.
Round 3, will be shown sometime on NBC, or CNBC, along with Peacock streaming, together with USA Network, also another platform that, is totally up to you to figure out.
I couldn’t.

As for the racing…..Tomac again shows his dominance.
Webb is proof, with the massive training he endured the last 6 months, it goes to those that work the hardest. The Honda curse continues with their top guy Sexton.  I mean, have you ever seen a gas tank like that?
Malcom, wtf dude.  He won his heat race going away.
Then a finish like that, it’s like he can’t get out from under a dark cloud or something.  Kickstart Kenny, needs a trainer to push him. Still fades in the final laps. Maybe A phone call to Webbs trainer is in order.

2 races in, it’s looking like 2023 is a 2 horse deal.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AJmZbRTb99A

[oldironnow]

motogrady wrote

Okay boys. Here’s  Round 3, the 2nd race that has been run, due to the cancellation of round 2, which will be run sometime in February, maybe between rounds 5 and 6.
Round 3, will be shown sometime on NBC, or CNBC, along with Peacock streaming, together with USA Network, also another platform that, is totally up to you to figure out.
I couldn’t.

As for the racing…..Tomac again shows his dominance.
Webb is proof, with the massive training he endured the last 6 months, it goes to those that work the hardest. The Honda curse continues with their top guy Sexton.  I mean, have you ever seen a gas tank like that?
Malcom, wtf dude.  He won his heat race going away.
Then a finish like that, it’s like he can’t get out from under a dark cloud or something.  Kickstart Kenny, needs a trainer to push him. Still fades in the final laps. Maybe A phone call to Webbs trainer is in order.

2 races in, it’s looking like 2023 is a 2 horse deal.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AJmZbRTb99A

That Yamaha can MOVE when it's time to pass.
Is there any difference between the KTM?GasGas/Husky nameplates?

Thanks for the link!

[motogrady]

oldironnow wrote

motogrady wrote

Okay boys. Here’s  Round 3, the 2nd race that has been run, due to the cancellation of round 2, which will be run sometime in February, maybe between rounds 5 and 6.
Round 3, will be shown sometime on NBC, or CNBC, along with Peacock streaming, together with USA Network, also another platform that, is totally up to you to figure out.
I couldn’t.

As for the racing…..Tomac again shows his dominance.
Webb is proof, with the massive training he endured the last 6 months, it goes to those that work the hardest. The Honda curse continues with their top guy Sexton.  I mean, have you ever seen a gas tank like that?
Malcom, wtf dude.  He won his heat race going away.
Then a finish like that, it’s like he can’t get out from under a dark cloud or something.  Kickstart Kenny, needs a trainer to push him. Still fades in the final laps. Maybe A phone call to Webbs trainer is in order.

2 races in, it’s looking like 2023 is a 2 horse deal.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AJmZbRTb99A

That Yamaha can MOVE when it's time to pass.
Is there any difference between the KTM?GasGas/Husky nameplates?

Thanks for the link!

From what I gather, not a lot.  
KTM owns them all.

Imo, KTM has the upper management.
Pit Brier and Roger DeCoster.

Hired on after he was put in a wheelchair, Pit
from what I understand pretty much runs it all at KTM now.
From SX to Motogp.

And Roger…….well, word has it last year he asked Cooper Webb, after Webb screwed around off track and had a dismal year, “Are you a Champion, or am I just wasting my time with you?”

Short, sweet, and right to the point.

[motogrady]

This coming weekend…….another California round, it’s Anaheim again.  

The big difference on this one, is scoring.

Most Supercross events are designed to run like AMA flat track.  Each class gets 2 heat races, an LCQ (last chance qualifier), and the Main event.  Series points are awarded for the Main event.  I think it’s 26 for first, 23 for 2nd and then down the line kinda like motogp.

In a Triple Crown event, they run qualifying rounds.
The top 9 guys in the 2 qualifying rounds go to the
3 races.  They run a last chance qualifier and take the top 4 out of that, 22 total, and they go to the races.

Then, the 22 guys race 3 times.  The races are shorter.
The 450s I think are a mere 12 minutes long.
This puts an added emphasis on good starting,
and flat out speed.

Also, each race is scored by the Olympic system.
1st gets 1 point, 2nd 2 points, 3rd 3 blah blah blah.
The guy with the lowest score, when all 3 races are tallied up, finishes the highest.
It is that score, or place, that is given Series points for that event, like in a conventional Supercross or Flattrack event.

That’s Triple Crown.
That’s this weekend.

[Fatfatboy]

oldironnow wrote

Is there any difference between the KTM?GasGas/Husky nameplates?

I asked a friend that has a Gas Gas this question.

The Gas Gas has a linkage rear shock and the KTM doesn't.





The Gas Gas has BrakTech brakes from Spain. The KTM has Brembos
The exhaust are different too. The Gas Gas doesn't have a chamber where as the KTM does.

Other than that they are pretty much the same except one is red and the other is orange.

I also learned that the KTM and Gas Gas both have an aluminum sub frame where as the Husky has a plastic/composite subframe.

[motogrady]

Okay boys.  
Round 4.  Anaheim 2.
A triple crown event.

Honda's top guy, Sexton, # 23, wins the overall.   Kinda weird, Honda changed the color
of the factory bikes, from the usual red to white for this event.  

Jason Anderson, #21, Kawasaki's top factory rider, puts the green bike in 2nd overall.

And what's really cool, Ken Roczen, #94, on a Suzuki, the brand that doesn't even have a factory team, puts the yellow bike on the box with a 3rd overall.😀.

KTM has a rough day with their top guy, #2
Cooper Webb a victim of a bit of rough riding, relegated
to 4th.  What goes around……..well you guys know.

And Eli Tomac, #1, Yamahas top factory rider, will not go undefeated this time around.  What looked to one guy as a momentary lapse of concentration, sees to that.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e_pdMwnTj24

Kickstart Kenny…..yeah baby.  

[oldironnow]

Loved that late apex pass to the lead by Sexton #23.

Thanks for the for links !

[motogrady]

oldironnow wrote

Loved that late apex pass to the lead by Sexton #23.

Thanks for the for links !

Clean as clean can be. 👍

[motogrady]

This week…….Houston Texas.  

Looks like a lot of air at this place.  

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HIDw_dKuH8k

[motogrady]

Hondas top guy Sexton seems to be knocking on the door,
but it’s the Factory Yamaha and Tomac that show em, yet again, how it’s done.

Sexton passed and beat Tomac in their heat race.  
Some thought Tomac might be a bit gunshy from last weeks crash, or maybe the Honda Pilot is coming on.

Eh, Tomac let him by in the heat.  Watched what he was doing, and in the main, the one that counts, the one that gives points, showed how a Champion wins Championships.

Tomac was Hondas top guy in the 250s when he was coming up.  They could have kept him.

Just saying……….

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5_ULiGDoL7g

[motogrady]

Here we go boys.  

As the series moves to the East, Tampa comes up as the 2nd race for the 250s.  
We don’t usually show the 250s here, but there was good racing in both classes so wtf.  
Hondas top guy Lawrence getting some flack for somewhat rough riding, Hagen Deegan, some calling the next big thing, rides his 2nd Pro Race.

The 250 East guys will run a few more, then the series will
head back to the left coast where they will have a kind of shootout. The top guys from the East get invited to run against The best of the west for one event.  The winner there gets bragging rights as fastest 250, but that’s about it.  Both East and West get their own 250!Champion,
and that’s how it goes in the history books.  

Tampa is a kind of preview of the Daytona round.  
They put the sand sections in, hey, it’s Florida,
but that’s about where it ends.  

Daytona, none of the tracks are anything like it.

In the 450s, it looks like a case of the flu tightens that class up.

This round I think is on MSNBC around 4pm Eastern.
With the Super Bowl kicking off at 6, ya, A Super Sunday.

James Stewart, who lives in Florida is in the announcers box
for this one, and from what I hear….,,well, let’s just say he’s his own guy😄.

If you don’t want the results before it’s on TV, don’t watch the highlights.  

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SEOKyE4hOPE

[hacksaw]

Why is there east and west champions and not a national champion?
The super bowl itself was designed to create a National champ out if East and west conference champs.
They may as well give everyone a trophy.
🎶😲kumbaya kumbaya 🎶

[motogrady]

hacksaw wrote

Why is there east and west champions and not a national champion?
The super bowl itself was designed to create a National champ out if East and west conference champs.
They may as well give everyone a trophy.
🎶😲kumbaya kumbaya 🎶

Well, it goes back a few years.  
They wanted to create a way for the young guys to get into it.  They figured, let’s take the small bikes, the 125cc 2 strokes and the 250 4 strokes, run them together and call it the Lites class.
A kind of feeder class for the big bikes.  The 450s.

Since it was originally designed as a, kind of beginner class,
for the young guys that were backed mostly by their families, to keep the costs down, which are mainly travel, they split it into 2, ah, divisions.

And so, The East and West 250cc Championships came about.

At first they had an age limit, I think it was only for guys between 16 and 22.  Also, if you won a certain number of races or Championships you “pointed out”, and had to move up to the 450s.

But that has all gone the wayside.

It’s not called The Lites anymore.

You have factory support teams now, 30 some yo guys entering, 450 guys dropping back and running, Effin sandbagging🙁 I call em.

The factories are to blame really, just another way to win a title, put ads out and sell more bikes.  

A good plan, eaten alive by big corporate.

Life in miniature.

[motogrady]

OK…..The 7th race of this series.  
Which was supposed to be the 2nd, but got rained out.
So, they hauled ass all the way back to Oakland California
to make this round up.
Next event should put everything on track, schedule wise.

Hondas top guy, Chase Sexton #23 apparently got off pretty bad at the practice track last Wednesday.  Knee at race time was the size of a grapefruit.
Still, showed he’s the fastest guy out there at the moment,
but The Honda Curse continues.

Tomac. #1.  Yamahas Alpha.  Something happened a few weeks ago, he’s been off the pace a bit.  He ain’t talking.  
Yamaha ain’t talking.  Was it the flu?  A twisted knee?
Fighting with the wife?  Nobody knows.  
But, he was so strong in the beginning, to drop off the pace as he did, something was up.
It’s like, The Beast left the building.
He seems to have been getting back to it tho, showing,
ya never know what’s going to happen.

And then there’s Cooper Webb.
The Great KTM Hope.
He must be keeping his nose clean and laying on it.
While the others seem to struggle a bit,
#2 seems to be coming on.
And, with the halfway mark approaching, in this 2023 season, the timing for him looks pretty good.  

Highlights for Rd. 2, or 7, however one sees it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H096L6H4CyAYou 

[grado]

Here we go guys, Arlington Texas. Rd 7.

The 3 starts, and shortness of each race brings out the unpredictable, the intensity just a bit more than the traditional 1 main format.  

Tomac, even tho he has not been the most steady guy, has
held the red plate this the whole season.  
Pretty remarkable really.  
All the top guys have been a bit sketchy in a way.

Nobody has dominated.  

Sexton continues with the small mistakes
Roczen, maybe a top 5 guy, is all one can expect out of a
Suzuki.
Anderson, Greens top guy, also has the speed, at times.

The one guy that’s always right there, just lurking around,
seems to be Cooper Webb, #2.  KTMs top guy, past 450 and 250 Champion, the guy that immersed himself in training
the offseason, just might be the dark horse this time around.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fONtXWKtqgs

[whatarush]

I don’t have peacock. So I DVR them on Monday from CNBC. That last Rd was a crash fest. I’m starting to wonder if Sexton can get through a race without hitting the ground?